Sharing the road with autonomous vehicles: Perceived safety and regulatory preferences

Technology providers, car manufacturers, and public agencies all need to work together to undertake extensive testing of fully autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads before such AVs are allowed to freely travel in ways similar to human-driven vehicles. This raises the importance of understanding public perceptions regarding safety considerations when traveling alongside AVs. This study makes use of a national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center to identify the affective, socio-demographic and technology-use attributes that affect an individual’s perception of the safety of sharing the road with AVs (PSSRAV) and identifies measures and interventions that can be undertaken to improve PSSRAV. Additionally, the authors evaluate individual preferences for AV regulations. The authors' results underscore the importance of the need for service providers and public agencies to be cognizant of the demographic and lifestyle/affective emotion considerations shaping AV safety perceptions and opinions about AV regulations. In particular, there is a need not only to focus on technological and other infrastructure components of AV development, but also to recognize the socio-technical considerations and human-related factors of the end-users. The authors' findings should be of substantial interest in the planning, design, deployment, and introduction of AVs within a safe and minimally regulated public operating arena.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2020.102885
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0968090X20307853
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/0968090X
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Nair, Gopindra S
  • Bhat, Chandra R
  • 0000-0002-0715-8121
• Publication Date: 2021-1

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 102885
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
  • Volume: 122
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0968-090X
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0968090X

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Demographics; Life styles; Regulation; Safety; Social factors; Stated preferences; Surveys; Vehicle mix
• Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01762520
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 22 2021 5:21PM